BED BUGS TREATMENT

BED BUGS TREATMENT | Which bed bug treatments work?

The bug epidemic in the western world is becoming more and more invasive, as reports of bed bug infestations are now coming not only from private homes, but also from hospitals, high street shops, hotel chains, retirement homes and schools and kindergardens.

As ‘demand’ for bed bugs treatment products increases, so does demand.

The most commonly bed bugs treatments available for your home, are:

Bed bug sprays.

Bed bug pesticide treatments, by exterminators.

Bed bug Traps.

Bed bug powders (like Diatomaceous earth, also known as diatomite)

Bed bug cryonite treatments.

Bed bug heat treatments, by steaming.

Bed bug heat treatment, by room heaters.

Bed bug cold treatments.

-Of these bed bugs treatments, the heat treatments has been the most consistently effective (but also the most expensive). You can even buy your own bed bug heaters (see the products page).

BED BUGS TREATMENTs:

Inventors will try just about anything to kill bed bugs — reddish-brown, blood-sucking parasites that are invading hotels, homes, hospitals, offices and university dormitories.

America’s obsession with bed bugs has led to a rush of entrepreneurs seeking profit from exterminating them, and about 75 companies gathered this week in hopes of launching the perfect beg bug killer.

“I never figured I’d be in Chicago for a bed bug conference. I never thought that in my wildest dreams,” Mike Bourdeau, of Flynn Pest Control in Massachusetts, said at the second annual Bed Bug University.

Bourdeau said bed bug business is booming. It went from virtually zero percent of his company less than five years ago to about 20 percent of what the company brings in today.

“It’s probably going to be a big part of our business for … the next ten years,” he said.

A study this year by University of Kentucky researchers and the National Pest Management Association showed 80 percent of surveyed pest control companies had treated hotels for bed bugs within a year, up from 67 percent a year ago.

More than 80 percent of the surveyed companies said they believed bed bug infestations were on the rise.

Whether there are more bed bugs these days or just more publicity about them is hotly debated, but there is general agreement that the problem is here to stay.

“It will become like roaches and ants. It’s not going anywhere. We will deal with bed bugs the rest of our lives,” said Phillip Cooper, chief executive officer of BedBug Central, a research and information firm.

The Bed Bug Baker features a heated tent to bake bed bugs at home. For hotel room infestations, there’s an electric heater that can bake the whole room.

Another product is a dust made of crushed fossils called diatomaceous earth that can be sprinkled on floors. It kills bed bugs by dehydrating their shell. Bed bugs walk through the dust, which is also a desiccant, and gradually dry out, said Jeffrey White, an entomologist with BedBug Central.

While hotel infestations get the most attention, a new study conducted by the University of Kentucky showed college dormitories, nursing homes, hospitals and office buildings are the new battlegrounds. Pest control companies report double-digit growth from last year in treating bed bugs at each place.

“It’s no longer going to be the hotels that are the problem,” said Mike Lindsey, president of Bedbug Boxes. “So you’re going to have to keep chasing it around and find that solution for that particular place.”

Lindsey quit his engineering job to chase the dream of being a bed bug entrepreneur.

He invented a box lined with what look like solar panels to heat clothes or luggage to temperatures that kill bed bugs after his family brought the pests home to Colorado from a Mexico vacation. Now he is marketing a suitcase that uses the same strips to roast any bed bugs inside.

Kenneth F. Haynes, a professor who studies insect behavior at the University of Kentucky, said people have a stigma about bed bugs, and are often embarrassed to get help treating an infestation.

For now, a scramble is on to tap a growing market. Once extermination products for the pest are widely accepted the need for a gathering of experts will fade away.

“We don’t have a roach conference. We don’t have a mouse conference. So, once we get to that point, there will be no need for a bed bug conference,” Cooper said.

-Please leave a comment, if you have experiences with bed bug treatments.